Thoughts After Christmas

A bishop in Georgia might hum this hymn for the coming Christmas season, only 359 days away. His wishes:

Pipes aromatic,

Music not static,

Food dietetic,

Books rather hectic

And money for the Georgia Missions!

By “rather hectic” (with its bad rhyme) is meant a book that is exciting, thought provoking, one to put your intellectual teeth into. You wouldn’t give a phone book or a check book; everyone has one. Can we presume that nearly everyone has a Bible?

A Sampling For 1966

Recently in speaking to our high school students on the Council, I distributed a list of about fifty books on Catholic life and renewal. Perhaps you’d like to read one of them a month, or give one to your friends - for graduation, marriage or military service.

Be careful to whom you give a book. Your friend who has everything might not appreciate George Dunne’s work, Poverty in Plenty. And for the in-law just out of a jail term, we would not suggest How the Reformation Came About!

Good Place To Start

The Lord - Romano Guardini

Perspective for Renewal - Mary Perkins Ryan

The Search for God - Robert Gleason, S.J.

The People Of God - You

That They May Believe - Hans Kung

Lay People in the Church - Yves Congar, O.P.

What They Ask About the Church - J. D. Conway

The Mind of the Catholic Layman - Daniel Callahan

Sixpence in Her Shoe - Phyllis McGinley

The Ideas of the Church - Abbot B. C. Butler

Scriptures - (Word of God)

New Horizons - Barnabas Ahern, C.P.

The Bible and Catholic Thought - ed. by John L. McKenzie, S.J.

Liturgy (Worship of God)

Of Sacraments and Sacrifices - Clifford Howell, S.J.

The Revival of the Liturgy - ed. by Frederick R. McManus

Other Churches

The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism - Louis Bouyer, C. Or.

A Survey of Protestant Theology in Our Day - Gustave Weigel, S.J.

The Spirit of Protestantism - Robert McA. Brown

Martin Luther - John M. Todd

Ecumenism (Unity of Christians)

The Unity of Christians - Card, Augustin Bea, S.J.

A Catholic Primer on the Ecumenical Movement - Gustave Weigel, S.J.

Christianity Divided - ed. by Daniel Callahan

Messages to Catholics and Protestants - Oscar Cullman

One in Christ - Kristen Skydsgaard

Some History

Popular History of Catholic Church - Philip Hughes

Perspectives in American Catholicism - John T. Ellis

Reform of the Church - Robert McNally, S.J.

American Catholicism - John T. Elois

How the Reformation Came About - Joseph Lortz

The Anguish of the Jews - Edward H. Flannery

Living The Christian Life

Mary, Mother of Our Redemption - Edw. Schillebeeck, O.P.

Christian Sacraments and Christian Personality - Bernard J. Cooke, S.J.

Freedom and Man - John C. Murray, S.J.

Christianity and Social Progress - John Cronin

A Sacramental Spirituality - Bernard Haring, C.SS.R.

3 Statements of U.S. Bishops on Racial Justice (1947-1958-1963)

Looking Toward Marriage - John L. Thomas

Conjugal Love - Bishop E. J. de Schmidt

Marriage Manual for Catholics - Dr. William A. Lynch

Catholic Marriage Manual - George A. Kelly

Poverty in Plenty - ed. by George Dunne, S.J.

Men Of Our Times

Pope John and His Revolution - E. E. Y. Hales

Teilhard de Chardin - Henri de Lubac, S.J.

Apostle of Our Time (Pope Paul VI) - John M. Clancy

Vatican II

Documents: especially on The Church, Liturgy, Laity, Ecumenism, Religious Liberty, Church in World of Today, The Church in Crisis - Philip Hughes

Vatican II - The Last of the Councils - Rock Caporal, S.J.

A New Pentecost - Vincent Yzermans

Letters From Vatican City - (v. 1 - 1962) Xavier Rynne

The Council in Action - Hans Kung

Footnote

Become a name dropper in your own time. Be a conversation stopper with a sharp quote from de Chardin or Kung. Become your library’s favorite visitor.

Whatever your purpose, you’ll find that reading helps thinking. And all of these books are available through the Notre Dame Book Shop next to Sacred Heart Church.

Paul J. Hallinan

Archbishop of Atlanta